386 



The Great Wiltshire Storm. 



exists, with the exception of the storm of September 22nd, 1856, 

 which beginning at Glastonbury, and ending at Oxford, devastated 

 a portion of the adjacent village of Clyffe-Pypard : the particulars 

 of this storm however, though sufficiently astonishing, do not in- 

 dicate the same amount of violence as that which marked our recent 

 hurricane, neither was its course so continuous or its attacks so uni- 

 form, for though its total course from point to point extended no 

 less than 75 miles, there were such wide gaps in its appearance, 

 and it bounded over such considerable intervals in its onward pas- 

 sage, that it was extremely difficult to trace its route. At Clyffe, 

 however, and especially on the property of Mr. Goddard, it certainly 

 expended its greatest fury, demolishing the fine old trees round the 

 Manor House and Yicarage, and leaving a scene of destruction sad 

 to behold. One more notice I have of a great Wiltshire storm, 

 and that was as long ago as the year 1703, which, however, was 

 not confined to this county, though some of its effects here are re- 

 corded. We are told 1 that, "at Salisbury nearly all the trees in the 

 Close fell flat," and Bishop Ken, then on a visit to his nephew, Mr. 

 Isaak Walton, Rector of Poulshot, narrowly escaped with his life : 

 while at Oollingbourne Ducis, as we learn from a memorandum in 

 the Register, " few places in England suffered more than the Par- 

 sonage here ; one long barn blown down ; all the rest of the barns, 

 outhouses, stables, and ricks unthatched, and the dwelling-house 

 uncovered: the lead on the chancel was shrivelled up like a scroll, 

 and the tower and the body of the Church much damnified." The 

 account closes by saying that " Providentially both man and beast 

 escaped all manner of hurt in these parts a Providence in which 

 we of 1859 have participated. Another remarkable fact recorded 

 in the same Register states, that the winter preceding the great 

 storm had been unusually mild, a circumstance which as signally 

 differs from our present case, the whole season since last autumn 

 having been extremely boisterous, with short intervals of excessive 

 mildness. Thus, the close of October set in with the most violent 

 winds, and the 25th of that month will long be remembered for 

 the loss of the Royal Charter, and many other disastrous shipwrecks 



1 " A History Military and Municipal of the Ancient Borough of Devizes," p. 

 330. (Devizes, 1859.) 



